ALICE, Texas — The City of Alice was planning on putting on active shooter safety courses sometime later this year.
However, after the school shooting in Uvalde on Tuesday, they have decided to move up their timeline.
“You just never know where you’re going to be, at what time," deputy city clerk Nellie Serna said. "I think we all have, kind of, a responsibility to be as well prepared as possible.”
Serna said she had already been thinking about taking an active shooter safety course and next week she’ll get the chance.
Alice police will host six classroom sessions for Alice city employees from May 31 to June 3.
The training is to learn what to do if caught in an active shooter situation.
“I'm hoping that we’ll all get some more information to be more prepared in a situation like that," Serna said. "You’re never really prepared. But I think it’s really important that we get this information, so we can do our best to try and help in a situation like that.”
Sgt. Daniel Elizondo of Alice Police will be leading the course. It comes from the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT) in San Marcos.
Elizondo said it covers what police expect of civilians and that is a variation of run, hide, fight; avoid, deny, defend.
If at first you cannot run from or avoid the gun fire, you must deny and defend.
“Then you deny them access to you and maybe by barricading a room, barricading a closet, things like that," said Elizondo. "And then if you have to defend yourself, which means maybe fighting for your life.”
Also part of the course, will be teaching people what police responsibilities are on scene, but they don’t want people to get involved.
“If they arrive on scene they need to listen to police commands and just — that way we know who are the innocent victims and who are not,” he said.
Elizondo said more officers are getting certified to teach the course. So, they’ll be able to offer it to more people in Alice and surrounding communities.
ALERRT also offers active shooter training for law enforcement agencies.
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